


I love you (no matter what)

by thereisnocowboyemoji



Category: Red Dead Redemption
Genre: Anxiety, Charles is horny for thicc Arthur and u can’t change my mind, Established Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, I’m projecting, M/M, i think, oversensitivity, theyre in love, yall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-16
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-11-19 10:15:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18134423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thereisnocowboyemoji/pseuds/thereisnocowboyemoji
Summary: It’s just the kind of day where everything pisses him off.





	I love you (no matter what)

**Author's Note:**

> I hope y’all enjoy this!! Sorry for any errors, I am crazy sleep deprived! :)

It was one of those days where everything was pissing him off.

He woke up to Dutch and Molly fighting. Again. This wasn’t anything new but today it grated on his nerves. Every shrill exclamation of Molly’s made his ears ring and every croaky defense of Dutch’s made his head pound. They were too close to his tent, too loud for him to even consider going back to sleep.

When he stands up, eyes squinting in the dim light of evening, he realizes that one of his boots is sitting funny on his foot. He wiggles it, trying to loosen it up and adjust it but it’s still too tight and there’s a quick sting of aggravation that shoots through him. He sighs, attempts to run his fingers through his hair as if to tether himself back to the world of calmness but instead he yanks his hand away, absolutely disgusted by just how greasy his hair feels. 

He gives up, then. Decides to just ignore everything about his own physical person and focus on getting through the rest of today. 

On his way to get some of Pearson’s stew (something he’s already annoyed with because he just knows it’s going to taste bad and be gross to eat) Micah stops him. Arthur doesn’t even have time to open his mouth to tell him to go away before Micah is spouting bullshit about how Arthur doesn’t need to be jealous of him and how they’re brothers in Dutch’s eyes. How they should be working together instead of creating tension and more problems for dear old Dutch. It’s all bullshit, in Arthur’s opinion. Micah is nothing but a liar and a manipulator and had it been a few months ago he would’ve been certain of Dutch’s faith in him and his faith in Dutch. But the man had made some questionable decisions in regards to their camp and safety measures and Arthur had overheard too many conversations where Hosea was near pleading with Dutch to ‘Just think straight, god dammit!’ for Arthur to be any kind of certain now. 

“But don’t worry, cowpoke.” 

That stupid nickname pulls Arthur out of his thoughts and he frowns, eyebrows cinching. God, just Micah’s face pisses him off. 

“Shut up, Micah. I ain’t in the mood for this.” 

To Arthur’s credit, he tries to walk away. 

He gave Micah his warning and he even turned to walk away, his back fully open to Micah. It was a hint to the other man to just leave him the hell alone. He’s aggravated and annoyed and pissed off, but above all of that he’s tired. He wants nothing more than to just sit down somewhere, maybe have a nice cup of coffee. He wants there to be some quiet so he can draw a little bit in his journal, maybe he and Charles could go down to the docks and he could braid Charles’ hair again. Hell, maybe everyone will take the hint and all turn in early and he can actually get a decent night of sleep.

Yeah, fat fucking chance. 

There is no peace in the camp tonight. The fight between Molly and Dutch has resolved into just Molly yelling, while Dutch sits there and reads his book. The sound of the pages turning is too loud to Arthur. At their main campfire is Javier, Sean, John and Karen. Javier is playing his guitar, singing a song that Arthur’s only heard once or twice before. Sean, Karen and John are singing their own songs, voices loud and off-key which is no surprise considering how much alcohol is in their systems. The scrape of Sean’s boot against the wooden box he’s sitting on is too loud to Arthur. Their poker table is filled by Hosea, Lenny, and Bill. All of them sharing stories of their past and all of them trying to talk over the other, voices raised and always louder than the last person who spoke. The sound of Bill clearing his throat before he launches into a story is too loud for Arthur. 

He swallows, closes his eyes and tries to count to five. It’s a trick Charles had taught him but before he can even get to three he’s already distracted by the noises surrounding him, eyes open and heart raising as he begins to feel like he’s choking. He suddenly notices everything, the exact way that his shirt is twisted to the left, the way his pants feel on his skin. It’s like he can even feel the grease from his hair dripping down his head.

He’s annoyed and on the verge of tears and that makes him even more annoyed so he doesn’t even think of his reaction when Micah shoves his shoulder and says, voice nasally and grating “Hey, cowpoke, I’m talking to you.” Instead he reacts on instinct, feels like he’s just watching his hand move to punch Micah instead of being an active participant. 

He hits the other man so hard that he twirls on his way to the ground. 

There’s silence for about a second before the shouting begins. Arthur barely noticing it, finding himself fully enveloped in whatever haze was forming since he woke up. Nobody is particularly running to them to check on Micah, they’re more or less only there to see exactly what happened but Arthur can’t answer any of their questions. His fists clench again and he thinks, briefly, that the next person he’s fixing to hit is Sean but then there’s a warm hand in his shoulder that’s gently leading him away from the group forming around Micah. 

He moves in slow motion as he turns to see who the hand belongs to and when he looks up and realizes that it belongs to Charles it takes everything he has to resist the urge to lean into him. “Charles.”

The other man hums and begins to lead them to their horses, helping Arthur onto Mob before taking his own seat on Taima. Charles knows how Arthur is like this, how he’s here but not really and that it’s hard for him to make his own decisions. He doesn’t mind, he finds that Arthur is more open this way. Once the other man realizes that it’s just the two of them and that they’re alone and safe he lays himself bare. He doesn’t try to hide his emotions or what he’s thinking and feeling. Charles doesn’t take the fact that he’s the only one who gets to see Arthur this way for granted. 

He leads the two of them away from their camp and towards a little alcove that he and Arthur had discovered a few days ago. It’s far enough away from any towns and civilization and it’s hidden enough that they don’t have to worry about a random passerby just stumbling upon them. There’s a river off to the left of where they usually set up camp that’s perfect for bathing and fishing. The ride there isn’t too long and when they spot the familiar land Charles pulls their horses to a stop, getting off Taima before helping Arthur off his own horse. He has a hand on the small of Arthur’s back as he leads him to the river. 

“Arthur, love, it’s just us here.” Charles’ voice is little more than a whisper but he knows that Arthur understood what he said because suddenly the man is turning, situating himself so he’s tucked into Charles’ side like he’s going to hide him away from all the bad things in the world. “I want you to wash up for me, Arthur. It’s going to help you feel better. I’ll get a fire going so you won’t freeze when you get out. Okay?”

Arthur nodded and started trying to take his clothes off, his hands were clumsy and it was like he wasn’t sure how his hands or the buttons on his shirt worked. Charles smiles before he knocks Arthur’s hands out of the way, unbuttoning and taking off all his clothes before folding them in a neat pile by the bank of the river. He goes to leave but Arthur catches his wrist, not letting the bigger man go. Charles smiles, pulling Arthur closer so he can kiss him, chaste and quick, before pulling away. “I’m just going to be right over there, okay?”

He wants until Arthur nods again before he moves. 

He takes their saddles off of Taima and Mob, letting the horses know that they’re free to roam. They’re good enough that they know not to wander too far, but Charles wouldn’t be worried if they did. A sharp whistle or two and they’d know they needed to come back. He sets up the bed roll next, fixing them so that they make just one really big pallet. He and Arthur had discovered this was easier than trying to just squeeze into one small bedroll, overheating and fighting for space. He gets some food out of his saddlebag, nothing big as he figures he’ll just go fish some if he and Arthur decide they want something more substantial. For now they have some canned fruit and rolls and Charles is suddenly glad he picked up some candy the last time he was at the general store. 

He’s trying to get the fire started when he hears Arthur walk up behind him, clad in nothing more than his white undershirt. The sleeves are a bit too long when they aren’t rolled up and he hooked the buttons unevenly but he looks absolutely beautiful nonetheless. The rest of his clothes are a damp bundle in Arthur’s hand and Charles takes them from him, quickly laying them out so they can dry overnight. He moves to sit on their bedroll before pulling Arthur into his lap, the skin of his lover warm and wet from his time in the water. 

“Do you feel like talking?” Charles kisses the back of Arthur’s neck, ignoring how the drops of water from Arthur’s hair gets his nose wet. The man in his lap shakes his head, not moving his attention away from watching the fire. “Okay. How about eating something?”

Arthur barely hesitated before he’s nodding, eyes shooting down to look where Charles’ hand is placed on his hip, holding the other man in place. Charles gives him a sweet smile before he’s leaning over, reaching for a chocolate bar and a can of strawberries. He wants to get Arthur to eat something more substantial, he decides, so he will he going fishing later tonight. For now these two things will do. 

Ever since Arthur came back from being taken by Colm, Charles has done his best to make sure that the other man was taken care of and taking care of himself. Often times it just meant reminding Arthur to eat something, or to take a quick nap before he went hunting. Sometimes it became little trip like this one, where it was just the two of them and they could talk about everything that was on their shoulders. 

Due to this, however, Arthur hadn’t been unaffected. Sure, he didn’t look like he was carrying the weight of the world around on his shoulders but he had gotten bigger. His shirts were filled out more and his pants seemed three sizes too tight. It wasn’t long after Arthur got back that they had had to go shopping for new clothes, since Arthur absolutely could not fit in his old ones anymore. And, yeah, maybe Arthur had been insecure about it for a while. Was convinced that he wasn’t what Charles wanted anymore but Charles couldn’t think of anywhere he’d rather be than between Arthur’s thick thighs, feeling Arthur’s rough fingers card through his hair as he sucked him off, loved seeing Arthur absolutely lose himself in pleasure that only Charles brought him. 

There wasn’t anyone else who could get Charles on his knees. 

He brushes that thought from his mind, though. Knows that they still have plenty of time before the two of them decide to head back to camp, before Charles decides that Arthur is well enough to go back to camp. 

For now, he breaks off pieces of Arthur’s chocolate bar and feeds it to him. He rewards him with sweet kisses after Arthur takes every bite, he tells him he loves him. He doesn’t talk outside of quiet murmurs, knows that sometimes talking just makes everything worse. They finish the chocolate bar and Charles picks up the strawberries but Arthur shakes his head. He doesn’t say anything, just adjusts himself so he’s leaning against Charles, his head under the other man’s chin. Charles takes to running a hand up and down Arthur’s back, inadvertently pulling him to sleep. 

It’s not even three minutes later when Charles hears quiet snores.


End file.
